Gladys Matthews, Program Director
Frampton Durban, Attorney
Marcela Escobar, M.D.
Cynthia Hernandez, Certified Interpreter
Claudia Moran, Certified Interpreter
Marco T. Torres, Attorney
Gladys Matthews was appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish at the College of Charleston in the spring of 2007 and assumed the directorship of the College of Charleston's graduate programs in legal and medical interpreting in July. Her Bachelor's degree in French is from the University of Costa Rica, and she has a Master's degree (in translation and terminology) and a Ph.D. (in linguistics with an emphasis on legal translation) from the Université Laval in Quebec. Her doctoral dissertation was a trilingual analysis of the translation of documents related to the dispute resolution process of NAFTA. She has a background in court interpreting and is a certified court interpreter. She has taught translation at the Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI). Her research interests include legal language and teaching methodology of translation and interpretation. Her most recent accomplishments include the translation into Spanish of a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on a study of the education system of the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Matthews recently received the 2009 ExCel Award for Oustanding Faculty of the Year for the School of Languages Culture and World Affairs.
http://blogs.cofc.edu/gradschool/2009/04/01/big-night-at-the-excel-awards/
Frampton Durban, Jr. represents the Department of Social Services in all cases involving child abuse and neglect in Charleston County. He has been doing so since 1989, first as the Managing Assistant Solicitor for the Family Court Division of the Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office and, since 1994, as Chief Legal Counsel for the Department of Social Services in Charleston County. He received his law degree from the University of South Carolina Law School and was admitted to the Bar in 1975. He has practiced law in the Courts of South Carolina, the United States District Court, and the United States Supreme Court. In addition to teaching Family Law in the Legal Interpreting Program at the College of Charleston he has been an Adjunct Professor of Law in the Law-Related Studies Department at Trident Technical College for the past 12 years, teaching a variety of courses including Family Law, Criminal Law, Probate Law, Business Law and Legal Writing. He is also a visiting lecturer at the Charleston School of Law.
Marcela Escobar-Gomez has been a freelance translator in the healthcare and medical fields since 1995. In addition to translating she teaches medical Spanish at the College of Charleston and the Medical University of South Carolina. She holds an MD from the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina (The College of Medicine) in Bogotá, Colombia, South America. She completed her residency at the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina in Ophthalmology, and a fellowship in Ocular-Pathology at the Medical University of South Carolina. She also holds a degree in teaching Spanish as a second language from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México). She has published numerous articles both by herself and in collaboration with colleagues. She has several awards such as serving as Chief Resident in the Ophthalmology department at Simón Bolivar Hospital (1992-1999), a Best-of-show award from the American Academy of Ophthalmology (2000), and First Prize award for Cataract category at the Congress of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgeons (2002).
Cynthia Hernández is a certified court interpreter (NCSC Consortium) with the Georgia Commission on Interpreting. She is experienced and trained in translation as well, having completed graduate level courses in translation, and is ATA (American Translators Association) certified for Spanish-English. She holds two MAs - one in Bilingual Legal Interpreting (College of Charleston '03) and one in Latin American Studies (Tulane University). She also holds a Bachelors degree in Sociology from Tulane, with minors in Psychology and Anthropology. She has medical, social service and legal interpreting/translating experience. In the legal field she has abundant experience with workman's compensation depositions and hearings, public defender cases, court interpreting and in the translation of court documents. She teaches Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpreting in the College of Charleston MA program and is the Trainer for the Interpreter Qualification Project at USC (South Carolina), which screens and trains interpreters for work in DSS (Dept. of Social Services) and DHEC (Dept. of Health and Environmental Control). She also oversees legal translations for these two agencies.
Claudia Moran is a certified court interpreter by NCSC with the Georgia Commission on Interpreting. She has fulfilled the written phase of the Federal Court Interpreter Certification Exam. She has been a teacher of Spanish at the College of Charleston since 2002, first as an adjunct instructor and now as a faculty instructor. She also works as a freelance interpreter and translator in court, legal, medical, conference, community, and other settings in the Charleston area. Ms. Moran holds a MA in Bilingual Legal Interpreting from the College of Charleston (2001), and a BA in Literary and Scientific Translation from the Instituto Nacional Superior en Lenguas Vivas, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1983). She is a member the American Translators Association (ATA) and the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators (NAJIT).
Marco Torres is a member of the South Carolina Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, and the Federal Bar of Puerto Rico. Mr. Torres attended San Francisco State University where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature. He received his Juris Doctor degree from American University's Washington College of Law in Washington D.C. Prior to opening the Torres Law Firm, Marco Torres was an attorney with the Charleston County Public Defender's Office, where he represented individuals charged with serious criminal offenses and handled the majority of the office's cases involving Spanish-speaking defendants. His additional experience includes clerkships with the Office of the Judicial Attaché at the United States Embassy in Mexico City and The Office of International Affairs at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. In these positions, Mr. Torres gained experience with international criminal matters including extraditions, international evidence gathering, money laundering and a variety other international law enforcement problems.
